updated 08:00 am EDT, Wed April 14, 2010

Apple may have booked WWDC keynote date

Apple may have committed to a specific date for unveiling the next iPhone, one possible scoop might have revealed. The company has purportedly booked off June 22nd at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and may use it for the WWDC keynote, according to ModMyi. The Center's public schedule is notably clear as of that week, although it's difficult to tell whether this is for WWDC or simply the end of its currently known schedule.

The company normally holds its WWDC events at the nearby Moscone Center West, including the keynote; it's done so as recently as last year. However, the Moscone schedule for June has changed over the past few months, going from showing an unnamed event on June 28th to the 23rd and now no event at all. Such changes wouldn't preclude Apple keeping any Moscone event dates secret, but they may also support the notion of some elements of the conference being in flux.

Apple has usually only used the Yerba Buena Center for smaller events like the iPad unveiling and most of its recent music-themed releases.

Publicly, the company has promised to launch iPhone 4.0 in the summer and in the past three years has always used WWDC to set a date for not just the release of the new firmware but the new phone itself. Firmware clues have pointed to a number of new hardware features that don't exist yet, such as camera flash and a front video camera.